Louise Carroll: Meatloaf recipe would be appreciated
Recently my daughter-in-law Linda and I made stuffed meatloaf. I made the stuffing and she made the meatloaf and it was great, but it wasn't exactly meatloaf the way we wanted.
I went searching for old meatloaf recipes. While looking through some old cookbooks for meatloaf recipes I found a stack of magazines and I have to share. "Quick 'n Easy Home Cooking" were lovely glossy national magazines. I was fortunate to write a column every month that included recipes and the magazine lasted for a year. It was great fun. Because I didn't get my pitch into the editor as quickly as I should have I ended up with the last slot ― microwave recipes. I could easily see no one wanted it.
My friend John Shearer, who lived in East Palestine, Ohio, referred to the microwave as "a glorified hot dog cooker."
And that was about the limit of my expertise in microwave cooking.
John also said, "When I was a kid, we ate in the house and went to the bathroom outside. Now we eat outside and go to the bathroom inside."
He had many other observations, but this column is about me, meatloaf, and recipes.
My February 1997 magazine article was 'Love Song' and it was about my grandmother, Dillie Katherine Best, who lived in Wentling's Corners in Clarion County. It was about the family gathering together for every meal, a social time. Grandma cooked meat and potatoes and whatever was in the garden at the time or whatever had been canned or preserved at other times. Add all that to homemade bread with freshly churned butter and we ate very well. It was plain cooking, but we talked about what had happened and what might happen blended all together in a love song. Anytime we gather and share food and conversation it is a love song.
Every month my column had three or four recipes and a microwaving tip as I was working hard to act as if I knew all about microwaving food, but I was learning as I tried every recipe.
My tip that month was "Do not salt meats and vegetables on the surface before microwaving. It causes dehydration, which makes the food tough. Salt food after you remove it from the microwave."
I sounded like a certified, authentic, genuine microwave cooking expert because I searched the web to find the dos and don'ts of microwave cooking and then generously shared them with my readers.
My article that month had recipes for baked potatoes, chili topping for the potatoes, pleasing pears, which was really good, and chewy caramel cookie, all made in the microwave.
Chewy Caramel Cookie
3 cups cornflakes
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup raisins
1 (14oz) bag of caramels, with wrappers removed.
2 Tablespoons water
In a large bowl combine cornflakes, coconut and raisins. Set aside. In another bowl place caramels and water and microwave on high for 3 to 4 minutes until smooth, stirring occasionally. Pour over cornflake mixture and toss until it is well coated. Drop by tablespoons onto wax paper.
Pleasing Pears
This not-too-sweet pear dessert can be made ahead, refrigerated and served cold.
1/2 cup orange marmalade or you can substitute peach or apricot
Juice of one orange or 1/4 cup orange juice
2 (16 oz.) cans pear halves, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix marmalade and orange juice in an 8- or 9-inch baking dish.
Arrange the pears cut side down, cover and microwave on high for 5 minutes until pears are hot. Baste with juice mixture and let stand for 2 minutes. Turn pears cut side up.
When pears are cold and ready to be served combine sour cream, orange rind and cinnamon and place a teaspoon in each pear.
Now that we have had cookies and dessert, let's go back to the meatloaf. If any of you have the old-fashioned meatloaf recipe I would like to have it. I recall that it was very dense and when it was cold it sliced beautifully for a meatloaf sandwich on thick slices of homemade bread.
This article originally appeared on Ellwood City Ledger: Carroll: Meatloaf recipe would be appreciated
